


Gender With Ruby Rose

by rnagnumdong



Category: RWBY
Genre: Genderfluid Character, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-19
Updated: 2015-02-19
Packaged: 2018-03-13 19:20:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,293
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3393230
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rnagnumdong/pseuds/rnagnumdong
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ruby, for certain, had more things to worry about than this.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Gender With Ruby Rose

**Author's Note:**

> warning: dysphoria kinda stuff

Ruby, for certain, had more things to worry about than this. Beacon was a prestigious academy, only for the best of huntsman and huntresses, but here she was, curled in her bed, on the verge of crying. She didn’t cry a lot, but that wasn’t because she was strong or anything. It was just because she didn’t let herself, and it ended up welling up inside her. So every now and then, she had to let it all out. That was fine, for the most part, but it usually ended up with her starting to outright sob at something really silly and irrelevant.

Right now, it happened that she had begun sobbing after overhearing the rest of her team talking about her. That wasn’t what sent her over the edge, though, because it was just a brief mentioning in a casual conversation that didn’t mean anything bad. It was that one word that done it. “She.” Which they thought was a silly thing to be upset over, but it didn’t stop them being on their fairly dangerous bed in the fetal position crying, as their team was out training or establishing relationships or literally anything else. Literally anything else would be more useful and productive than what they were wasting their time doing right now.

They couldn’t really deny that it had begun bothering them, especially over the last month or so. They had these sorts of feelings their entire life, here and there, but it had gotten worse when they came to Beacon. Maybe it was the added stress, or the sense of independence, or knowing that they were in a good position so they started looking for something else to worry about (Of course the last one wasn’t the case, but that’s still what they thought.) It didn’t help at all when Weiss ended up being their partner, because even if they could handle things to a decent extent in terms of not taking them personally, Weiss was not an easy girl to be friends with. Especially when in the beginning, most of her words had hit home.

But Weiss had apologized (which would never truly erase what had been said, but it took the sting off it), and Ruby had forgiven her, and they were friends now, and that wasn’t the problem here. The problem was the fact that they, Ruby, a fairly well off student at the prestigious Beacon Academy, was crying on a bunk bed, all because they had heard their own sister use the word “she” for them. That was the absolutely ridiculous problem. Who cries because someone uses the correct pronouns? Ruby was a girl, and she knew it. She always had been.

But that didn’t change the fact that they had started crying because of that, that they had always felt uneasy about their gender, that they felt like they were lying just checking “female” on a form. That they had a love-hate relationship with their battle outfit because it was silly to choose a skirt when about half of the time they hated wearing it. And they certainly didn’t enjoy the school uniform, because that was something that there was no chance of changing, unless they went to the faculty with some ridiculous excuse to wear a boy’s uniform.

So they lay there for a bit more, unsure of how much time had went by, and it occurred to them that the rest of their team would be back soon. And getting caught like that would just make the whole situation worse, so they got up and walked into the bathroom portion of the dorm. They looked into the mirror above the sink, scowling down at their school uniform and noting dully where tears had fallen down on the shirt. They turned the water on, and splashed some water on their face, making it less teary and more soaked. Immediately they washed it with a washcloth, reminding themselves of an acne prevention commercial.

They changed into something more casual that they would be okay with sleeping in. Which meant pants, essentially. They left the bathroom, scanning the main part of the dorm for something to do. There probably wasn’t enough time to go hunt down the rest of their team, their semblance wouldn’t be much help if they didn’t know where to look. They ended up on their bed with a history book, reading about the Faunus War and answering the homework questions. This was what Blake came in the room to find, a Ruby doing history work diligently.

“Hey, Rubbles? You alright?” It occurred to Ruby then that Blake probably heard them, with her ridiculous heightening sense of hearing. Now they were going to have to deal with getting asked what was wrong, answering what was wrong, maybe lying, having their girlfriend concerned for them, a whole ordeal.

“Yea, I’m fine. Just wanted to finish up this homework before I forgot about it!” Ruby answered cheerfully, not looking up from the work they were doing, their feet fumbling around together.

Blake narrowed her eyes. “Are you sure? I know you get restless when you’re nervous.”

“Yea, yea, I’m fine, Blake,” Ruby insisted.

“Please don’t lie to me.” Blake’s eyes softened, looking at her datefriend carefully.

Ruby sighed. “It’s just. . . It’s silly. Don’t worry about it.”

“If something’s bothering you, then it’s not silly, Ruby.”

Ruby pushed their work to the side, sitting up and glancing at Blake before looking at the floor. “I was just upset, because Yang called me a ‘she’, and that’s really silly to be upset so I don’t want you to bother yourself over it and it’s not a big deal at all I just didn’t want you guys to see me crying and I wanted to get out of the uniform already so I came in here but it doesn’t matter because I’m over it now and it was silly in the first place,” they rambled out, trying to not say anything and to have Blake not understand because it was so fast and hoping that she would somehow have help all at the same time.

Blake stared at Ruby for a moment, then reached down and hugged them. “If that’s what’s bothering you, you should have said something sooner. It’s not a big deal, we can use ‘them’ or something for you if that’s what you want. No one’s going to be angry.”

Ruby felt like Blake should be angry, but she couldn’t bring herself to be. She was never that kind of person, who pushed people away when they said stuff like that, always acted like she knew what they were feeling. They gave Blake a look of confusion, tilting their head to the side in a way that might have been comical in a different situation. “What do you mean?”

“It would just be a simple pronoun change for the rest of us, and if it means that you’ll be feeling better about things then it wouldn’t be a big deal at all.”

Ruby might have cried again right there, but they didn’t. They continued on, them and Blake talking about gender for much longer than Ruby would have ever thought necessary. They talked about genders that Ruby had never heard of. They talked about pronouns that they didn’t even think were a real option that no one would tease them for using. They talked about how different folks thought of their own gender, as an individual. They talked about so many different experiences similar to Ruby’s that they didn’t know anyone else went through.

The next day, when Ruby woke up and said “They today, please” and everyone responded with varying levels of “ok,” they had never felt such an incredible feeling of ‘right.’

**Author's Note:**

> blake is agender. this is why she knows the things.


End file.
